Search Results for: POP-ROCK

Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse is the perfect poster girl for the current state of the music industry. Music isn’t her problem. Everything else is. That’s exactly the same situation that the music industry – faced with lagging sales, a lack of star power and defection from its biggest moneymakers – finds itself in these days. And when the music industry has problems, the Grammys – celebrating their 50th anniversary Sunday – do as well. Winehouse and her stunning R&B revivalist debut “Back to Black” (Universal Republic) are up for six awards; she’s the only artist nominated in all four… Read more »

Global domination and making a new album are on the docket for chart-topping pop-rock band Plain  White T’s in 2008.Currently opening for Fall Out Boy, the Chicago quintet plans to head overseas in January to promote the recent international release of its “new” album, 2006’s “Every Second  Counts.” The group will play the U.K., Europe, Australia, New  Zealand and Japan, according to frontman Tom Higgenson.”We’re possibly bigger in the U.K. than we are in America now,” Higgenson told Billboard.com. “It’s still fresh over there. We’re going over to headline 2,000-seaters, which will be great.”But Higgenson and company are even more… Read more »

Listeners tuning in to Chicago alternative rock station WKQX (Q101) on August 9 heard a catchy, guitar-driven track called “The Great Divide,” followed by an announcement that the song was produced by a “mystery artist.” It quickly became the most-requested song on the station and was put into power rotation by the programming department. After three weeks of speculation, a DJ finally revealed the secret: The band behind the alt-rock hit was none other than Hanson, a trio of brothers best known for their pop-rock song “MMMBop,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in 1997. Q101 program… Read more »

McFly’s latest double a-side “Baby Come Back/Transylvania” has put an end to Beyonce and Shakira’s three-week run at the top of the Official UK Top 40, while landing the young pop-rock act their seventh No. 1 single. The track debuts ahead of “Beautiful Liar” which drops to two, while Akon’s “Don’t Matter” jumps up eight spots to three. Gym Class Heroes’ “Cupid’s Chokehold” is at four while Scootch’s Eurovision flop “Flying The Flag” charts at five. The pop trio were ranked 22nd out of 24 at Saturday’s event in Finland. In the rest of this week’s top ten, Linkin Park… Read more »

INDIO, California – Perhaps it was a sign that the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Arcade Fire and Hot Chip were sharing the same bill. Whatever the case, Saturday was certainly one of the most scorching Coachella afternoons ever, with temperatures into the100s for hours on end. That meant the tented stages provided plenty of shadowy solace, while pre-sunset outdoor acts were playing to their diehards and suffering while doing it. (Let’s just say there were multiple hipster rockers quoting Lil Jon’s infamous sweat-dripping lyrics.) Still, Peter Bjorn and John and the Decemberists wore their suits and the Sahara tent was… Read more »

Gwen Stefani says she can’t wait to reform with her No Doubt bandmates, and hopes to have an album out by summer 2008. The pop singer has spent recent months promoting her second solo set “The Sweet Escape”, and heads out on tour over the summer before giving birth to her second child. And after a busy year, Stefani plans to keep the momentum up with a return to pop-rockers No Doubt. “I got an idea in my head about what we could do and now that’s all I can think about – doing a No Doubt record,” She tells… Read more »

The Police are set to reform at next month’s Grammy Awards, a number of internet news sites are reporting. The comeback, which is still unconfirmed, was initially reported by music site Side Line, and reveals the band plan to celebrate their 30 year anniversary with a big tour, reportedly “around 80 live dates”. The famed post-punk reggae-pop-rock act, which featured frontman Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stuart Copeland, formed in 1977 but released their last studio album – the famed “Synchronicity” – just seven years later before each band member went their own separate ways. “We started 30 years… Read more »

If there’s a self-fulfilling prophecy in the musical landscape of the year, it’s the way the Virgin debut band THE SUMMER OBSESSION is coming into its own, with its crunchy pop-rock combination of guitar, electronics, and faultless songwriting, during the dog days of 2006. The Florida-based quartet — Luke, on keyboards and vocals; Chris, formerly of Good Charlotte, on drums and “shenanigans”; Fin, on guitar and vocals; and Christ, on bass, with Josh Abraham (Velvet Revolver, P!nk) producing and Ryan Williams engineering (OutKast, Rage Against the Machine) — will release the album “THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG” on Virgin Records… Read more »

New York – Radio’s playlist liberation movement hatched in late 2001 at a birthday party in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A radio was blasting when Howard Kroeger, director of operations and programing for CHUM Broadcasting’s Winnipeg stations, arrived at his friend’s 40th-birthday bash. It was a competitor’s classic rock station, and Kroeger used the occasion to conduct an informal focus group among the partygoers, most in their mid- to late 30s. Whenever Boston, the Cars, Meatloaf, Supertramp or some other ’70s staple came on, it got an overwhelming thumbs-up from the Molson-enhanced crowd. But there was a noticeable lack of enthusiasm when… Read more »

“Backstreet Men” doesn’t really have the same ring, but make no mistake, the Backstreet Boys are coming back more mature on their first album in five years. The group, which hasn’t released a collection of new music since 2000’s Black & Blue, just wrapped sessions for the as-yet-untitled album, which might surprise people expecting the same pop sound of old, according to member Howie Dorough. “We’ve been working on it for more than a year now, but it really started taking shape and changing over the past six months,” Dorough said. “It’s going in a more pop/rock direction, kind of… Read more »